U/W Humans

Those are some great observations as I feel the same myself, been doing test draws and honestly I hate seeing the Hunter in my hand and the Sphinx/Authority in my top 10 cards. Ethereal Armor (4) is definitely going in, I will also be adding in (4) Phalanx Leader.
-4 Triton Fortune Hunter
-1 Prognostic Sphinx
-1 Righteous Authority
- 1 Fate Foretold
+3 Ethereal Armor
+4 Phalanx Leader

True True, in test playing I have been able to draw/scry into what I need but if I were to drop anything else what would you suggest? The only creatures I would consider for the mainboard would be Fiendslayer Paladin, Precinct Captain or possibly Banisher Priest; oddly I am not a fan of Fabled Hero but I would never rule him out.

You should try soldier of the pantheon is a great turn 1 drop, and u can pump it with phalanx leader

I agree that a Soldier of Pantheon is a good one drop for even a heroic deck, as it can be a great blocker to those that are multicolored and well you get some health back for when they use multicolored spells. Win/Win for a one drop 2/1.

I am currently running a White/Blue heroic deck at my FNM's and I have had some good success overall with mine. Last two times I went I went 3/2 then 4/1. And this was based off two winning cards I believe that pushed me to win games and fast (Which I'll reveal in a second). I see that you are trying to use card draw and scry as a good way to get what you need in your hand, but I think that you can get this still by taking out a few cards as well as adding in a few others. Against a agro deck the Heroic decks can do REALLY well, but against a Control deck that's where things can get tricky, and in which it comes down to perfect card draw in those control games that can allow you to win.

As I see it, I think that 2 God's Willing's are enough for agro decks, and then I side board in 2 more for the times that I need more protection, as most time I have bigger creatures that can handle my opponents agro if they are not running control. Most times with heroics decks you are banking on one or two creatures to get big and swing in with high damage, usually unblockable with Aqueous Form. So if you do decided to take out the two God's Willing's I would put in 2 Thassa, God of the Sea. She allows for the upkeep Scry, as well as a two mana unblockable. I know it doesn't trigger a heroic, but it can be cast multiple times and once she is out there, there is very little that most decks can do to stop her from being there. Don't bank on her ever becoming a creature as your blue devotion isn't high enough, but that's not a bad thing, as you are banking on her upkeep scry and unblockable abilities.

I really think that Ethereal Armor has got to go though =(. Usually creatures can get whipped out pretty fast so building up Enchantments doesn't happen even quite as often as I would like, even with a Aggro deck as you still have to sacrifice creatures sometimes to get where you need to go to win. The Plus 2/2 is nice given hit on a heroic but I have a better card I think in mind.

What I would run in Ethereal Armor's place is Hidden Stings. And if you have never seen Hidden Strings played, it may be very confusing to you. But it allows you to Tap or untap targeted Permanent then Cipher it to a Creature you control. This can be Game changing as I have won with this combo more times than I can count. Let's say you have a creature that can attack but they have a blocker that you know can kill you off or kill each other off. if you play hidden strings you can then target to tap their creature, and then target to Untap your creature thus giving it a heroic counter and swing in for free damage to the player (don't forget to cipher it to the creature doing the combat damage to the player too!). And given that the Cipher ability states that if you do combat damage to a player you may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying it's mana cost you thus get to cast Hidden Strings again free and then Untap the creature that attacked, thus giving it another heroic counter, and then well Untap a mana of yours if you so choose if it allows you to be open for another creature on the board or to untap a Plains to be able to cast God's willing if you may need to save your creature. Pair this up with Thassa, and a couple Aqueous Forms you get to trigger this quite a bit in a game if you can keep the creature on the board.

Fate For fate foretold, I like the care, especially since it gives a draw mechanic and you can play it to even know you will loose a creature just to draw another, yet I don't know how it works yet, I am going to play test it in my deck as see how I like it, currently it's in my side board for control decks, as they delete creatures off the board quite fast and then that would give me two cards in a sense to try to answer back fast the next turn. I personally in this spot run Gift of Orzhova. As getting a +1/1 counter and then lifelink and flying seems to be beast mode since most don't run flyers it's a easy way to be evasive and get damage in, plus the lifelink just is a bonus. Yes it's kind of expensive, but a 3 drop for 2 +1/1 counters on a heroic and then lifelink and flying seems pretty nice to me, especially if in turn three you can throw down a fabled hero and then on 4 have it swing in for 8 total damage, maybe 10 if you give it another buff, like say aqueous form or Ethereal Armor if you still wanna run that, which may not be bad since he will get 3 counters for a one drop of Ethereal plus the 2 for Gift of Orzhova. So now you have a Double Strike Fabled Hero at a 7/7 thus hitting for 14 on turn 4, not bad if you ask me. turn 4 14 damage and 14 health, I'll take it! I think Gift of Orzhova can be a game changer for that reason alone if it resovles, even if for a turn to swing with It, it can boost you enough to last a longer match if needed, as we all know heroic decks are meant to just turn sideways and swing in as much as possible and win in the fewest amount of turns as possible other wise in a late game we get screwed hardcore!

For Creatures I would go heavier on them than the instants or sorceries that trigger their heroics, and this is for good reason Risshin had stated. If you pull all these target creature spells and have no creatures what good are they? I noticed this in a lot of my games and took a lot out to then pump my creature count. I would suggest taking Omenspeaker out, as with thassa you will get your cry, as well as with Aqueous Form. Scrying two seems nice but I don't see her as being as viable as some of the other creatures you can throw in and still keep the scrying and drawing in tacked.
This is what I run and I have liked it a lot given the circumstances in my FNM's.
4x Fabled Hero (this paired with Gift of Orzhova seems to be a BIG win condition for my deck)
4x Phalanx Leader
4x Soldier of Pantheon
4x Favored Hoplite
3x Battlewise Hoplite
3x Precinct Captain
1x Daxos of Meletis (yes he seems out of place, but I am testing him to see if I want to run more, his ability to exile cards and play them colorless seems to be pretty nice, plus the life gain, I was able to play two planeswalkers this way)

Right now I run about 62 cards in my deck, as I know this is sometimes a big no no, I just have stuff I wanna try out and this was not a bad way to do it. As I run 2 Thassa's in place of two Aqueous Forms, 2 Ajani's in place of 2 Fate foretold's, 2 Gift of Orzhova's for the other 2 Fate Foretold's
Other than that only 2 God's Willing's, 3 Ordeal of Thassa's, and 4 Hidden Strings.
So really I am more creature heavy and less Targeted Spells for heroics. As I said I hate it when I have all these triggers for heroic and have no creatures to use them on. I believe that I only run 13-14 ways to trigger heroics and 23-24 creatures at any given time, that way this ensures me a way to get creatures on the board and against a control deck I have a lot of low drops to overwhelm them so that they can't just whipe my whole board each turn. Thus I can poke at them for a good 6-10 health before it get's interesting, or well sometimes just overwhelm them with creatures and push the win early.

Overall it's a good deck I just think that Hidden strings and GIft of Orzhova would make a good addition, as well as maybe a little less Non-Creature spells and more creatures to help you push thru early game.
I know this is long but I like to explain my theories lol, as I have only played a few months now I am still learning so Maybe my thoughts are not as sound as some, but I find it has worked for me against a lot of my towns veterans.

You sir are a god send, maybe Thassa? I finally got around, no more than 3 hours ago to testing this deck and fine tuning it, so we must be on some sort of wavelength or something! During my initial testing I quickly deduced I definitely needed more of mid-range game plan as I found myself blowing through my stuff fast, still keeping my hand full but bricked hard if something went awry, stray removal or what not.

I love the idea for Gift of Orzhova as I found myself want more evasion,my ground pounders were good early but lost steam in the mid to late game unless I had A.Form going. I actually hated seeing E.Armor and will definitely be cutting it out entirely, going to test the Gift of Orzhova in its place. I do agree about the Gods Willing as there were many tests where is was dead in my hand when I would rather be doing something else productive with game plan, which is winning btw.

I have never really been a fan of Fabled Hero for some reason but will test him out for sure as you seem to have a better grasp on this sort of playstyle than me, I typically run control so I was considering running Banisher Priest and Fiendslayer Paladins for my mid game cards, FSP snuffs the most common of removal out there right now which is black. We will see how it goes and I will get back on that.

I absolutely love Fate Foretold, a turn 2 draw/pump on Favored Hoplite is so fun and unexpected; I highly recommend testing this if you haven't yet. I will be adding Thassa in as I found myself wanting that unblockable and adding in Thassa will get me to that level of seeing it consistently. I didn't know Hidden Strings triggered heroic each time it went off, that is so awesome and I cannot wait to play around with that! My buddy has suggested it a couple of times but I think I was to focused in on Draw/Scry that I got tunnel visioned.

Any who, THANK YOU so much for your insight, this is pushing me in the right direction with the deck and can't wait to see what comes of it, maybe I can even 4-0 it at my FNM!


P.S.
Have you ran up against any devotion decks? If so, how did you fare?A nd pointers in playing against the respective colors? They are really heavy in my meta right now, mostly Blue and Black but my friend just 4-0'd with his Red Devo.

Yes I am double posting, you have no idea how excited your post has me right now; I am SO STOKED to test all these goodies out!!!

Well keeping a full hand is quite nice, as I have had time that I am cardless by turn 5. But then again that is usually when I flood in mana or I am having the upper hand. By then I have either won the game or about to with the perfect win condition as I have stated above.

Throw in Gift of Orzhoava, I don't think you will regret it. I know it's a 3 drops but offers so much more utility than Ethereal Armor I believe.
God's Willing is only really good if you know you want to swing in with one HUGE Heroic Creature and give it protection so it's can't be blocked. But see that's why I have 2 A.Forms in there and Thassa so I can just make them unblockable and still get my scry in the upkeep. Other than that I don't see running 4 on the mainboard. Against a full control deck you probably will need the 4 and take out say A.Form as you are going to focus on keeping guys on the board so they don't get wiped out by instants or sorceries. IN this case you usually don't have creatures you have to worry about on the board so no need to be unblockable at this point right? Plus by the time they do get their win condition if they do, you will have Thassa to swing in for free.

Try out Fabled Hero, I think that he will become a fan of your quite quick. He is a big win condition for me, as he is my prime creature I want to buff, especially against non-control decks. He buffs so fast by turn 5 that you can pretty much make the opponent give up with no answer. FSP seems to be good in a sideboard, but I don't see him really fitting this style deck but he can come in handy no doubt, just I don't own him to play him in a tournament so I can only proxy him in side matches. So maybe I'll see how he rules in.

Well the draw mechanic on Fate Foretold seems nice, so I have 4 I may just have to mainboard it a match in place of something and see how it fairs. . As I said I seem to be stuck with zero cards in hand by turns 6-7.

Thassa is a must I believe in this deck now that I have tested her, by turn three she is a great lay down especially if your hand looks not so promising after the first couple turns and you don't have a fabled hero in hand. You lay her down turn 3 and then start srying out the cards you don't need and hope for ones you do.

Hidden Strings is one of my favorite cards in this deck for two reasons. It triggers heroics, and it allows you to swing in most time for free and then can continue to be free if played right. The card states right on it that you TARGET a permanent, so thus if you target the heroic creature you get the counter or whatever it is the heroic does. And if it continues to swing in for player damage you thus get to cast a copy of Hidden Strings are NO mana cost. Thus targeting another two more permanents after it all resolves.
The funny part is I Had a Fabled Hero at 5/5 with A.Form at my last FNM and the Opponent had 12 health and I at 5 health. I put hidden strings on The fabled Hero and thus Hit him as a UNTAP to trigger his Heroic, thus making him a 6/6 so in theory it would have killed him. But he had a scavenging Ooze on the field and scavenged my graveyard for a counter and 1 health making him at 13 now. He thought he was going to live through the ordeal and go one more turn for the win, but as it sat, Fabled hero is double strike (so he has two combat phases), and Hidden Strings Cipher ability states that as long as I do combat damage to a player I can cast this card again for ZERO mana cost. So after the first strike of the double strike I did 6 damage and that was player damage, so I then used the Hidden strings again to pump the Fabled Hero up one more time to a 7/7 thus hitting him in my second combat phase for 7 and thus doing the 13 damage and winning. Was pretty epic honestly.

Yeah I have ran up against a Mono Black, Mono Blue, and Mono Red deck with this deck, well not the final version but I did beat out a mono black and mono red deck, the only one I have not won against since I updated is the Blue. Though the blue acts a lot like mine as it builds quickly for Master of Waves. Now I don't care if master of waves hits the field as if it does I will just swing in over him by that time to win. I see My deck and a Blue devotion pretty much racing to the finish. As I try to build aggro fast to win the blue will have to play the same, as I will have quite a few small drops to take on his Judges familiar (so long as he doesn't try sacing it to counter a spell of mine) and of course the Raptor that builds counters based of higher creatures that hit the board. I really don't think blue will be too hard honestly. Just a matter of paying attention to whats going on and playing wisely.

The hardest deck I have played has to be a Black Devotion deck or Black blue. As they have a lot of burn spells that just kill me off or just counter what I try to do. But there is a chance to win with the right draw of aggro. With all the creatures I have in my deck I have a lot of one drops or two drops to give to dec demon. So thus I am able to swing in with a creature with Gift of Orzhova to gain health and do unblockable (with A.form or Thassa, or just being a flyer) damage. So once I start making health back I can pretty much let dec demon hit me as I will do just as much back the following round to make up for it. Thus prolonging it long enough to win and not long enough to allow them to make a bunch of pack rats to win. It's tricky but think of it like a poker game, you have to bluff. I had a guy look at me with my one Plains mana open all the time as though I had God's WIlling/Brave the Elements in my hand even if I didn't so he didn't waste his card thinking I would just block it and then be immune to damage that turn and he couldn't attack haha. So just have to wait a little more against a deck like this and play smart. I usually toss something out turn one, see if they take it out by turn two, but I still get in a couple damage and if they take it out that's okay, just then lay out 3 more one drops if you have them and then wait until like turn 5-6 to lay out a fabled hero and hope to have a god's willing and or brave to save him to then turn in some good damage the following turn.
The key here is to know that you will loose creatures, just make sure you try to loose the ones you know you want to loose and save the one you need to win. I used to play defensively against decks but then started noticing that if do that I can't win. I have to have a lot of small drops and just over aggro them and overwhelm them to take control. Because by turn 5 they usually only can delete about 1-2 creatures, and if you have 3-4 (after they have deleted a couple already) out there you still have the upper hand right then. This is where I like my Precinct Captain at turn 2. As I can lay him down and swing with him and make tokens. So yeah go ahead and play a Devour Flesh, I'll just sac a token. I mean they will have other spells like hero's downfall or doomblade but sometimes by turn 3 they may not have drawn that good card to get him off the board and you can sometimes make a couple tokens to help out.

As it sits this style of deck fairs most well against other aggro decks. Yet, can win against a control deck if the card pull favors you.

Once you play test let me know, I see you added in the Fabled Hero's and Gift of Orzhova. . . Eager to see how you like the combo

Ok I have gotten to play test against a Mono-Red Devotion for about 15 Games. Depending on the hand it has went well, about 50/50 on the wins. The first 8 my mana base was really off but we got that fixed up and it performed much more consistant after that.

Unfortunately I still don't like Fabled Hero, way to slow for what I am looking to do however I do like Daxos and decided to run 2 of him. Got rid of Fate Foretold, was kind of meh; Put in 2 Gift of Orzhova. Added 4 Scry Lands, they work so well, I highly recommend it. Hidden Strings is a BEAST, holy cow I love this card....

I will be running the deck tonight at my FNM; I will post rounds and analysis tomorrow.

Still don't like Fabled Hero eh, He has won me plenty of games with Gift of Orzhova on him but, hey you play it like you like, I tend to see him as a good win condition, but not all will. Against control decks though I do usually sideboard him out for other things that help.
Daxos is pretty legit, I want to run 2 - 3 I need to play test more to see how it all comes about.

Got rid of fate foretold eh? I tried it out, was pretty pleased with it for the few games I played, but I do know a card that I have fallen for and that's Artisan of Forms. She can win games by her self and for a 2 drop it's nice. I still need to test Mizzium skins but that will come soon enough, Kinda hard to keep going right now since next week is pre release for BoTG. I'd take all 4 A.Forms out if you can throw in 2 Thassas, and then run 4 hidden strings. if not then at least run 2 Thassa, and two A.Forms.

I may have to try out the scry, just don't know yet what my logic on it is. . .

Ok here are my results on the FNM...

Round 1 vs. U/B Mill (Loss 1-2)

Round 1 (Loss) on a mulligan to 5, by the time I could start doing anything 1/2 of my deck was gone from a Breaking, Tome Scour, Ashiok. Anytime I would try to start going there was an answer.

-- Game 2 (Win) only on misplay by my opponent, instead of popping his Ratchet Bomb on a Ethereal Armored Favored Hoplite, he ticked it up for Battewise Hoplite. It took a while but I was able to finally get past Wall of Frost for the win, barely.

-- Game 3 (Loss) on a mulligan to 6, I played around a Ratchet Bomb for to long and allowed my opponent to set up 2 Wall of Frosts and Jace, Memory Adept. My opponent played really well, answering anything I dropped dragging the game into his favor.

Round 2 vs. Mono-White (Loss 0-2)

-- Game 1 (Loss) on a mulligan to 5, my opponent was able to get more of a field presence than I could and go a Heliod swinging for the game.

-- Game 2 (Loss) started well, baited an early Chained to Rocks and was able to get a Favored Hoplite to 11/12 but not Aqueous Form or Gift of Orzhova my opponent eventually got Heliod pumping tokens to chump block and was able to pull out the win.

Round 3 vs. Mono-Blue Devotion (Win 2-1)

-- Game 1 (Win) went all to my master plan, kind of, got a Battlewise Hoplite swinging with a Aqueous Form and a resolved Hidden Strings turn 3. This is the first game I finally got a Hidden Strings going and ERMAHGERD! it was nuts I think he scooped at turn 5...

-- Game 2 (Loss) on a mulligan to 5, Master of Waves wrecked my face...

-- Game 3 (Win) was a Magic: The Christmas-land, Turn 2 we had a Favored Hoplite with Aqueous Form, Ethereal Armor and HIDDEN STRINGS going so hard in the paint.... It was over before it started, I had 2 Gods Willing that protected my powerhouse and we took this one home.

Round 4 vs. Orzhov Midrange (Win 2-0)

-- Game 1 (Win) was kind of a shocking win as I mulligan'd to 6, survived a 2 Doom Blades, a Heroes Downfall and a Pharika's Cure keeping me off of creatures for 4 turns. My opponent was able to get Desecration Demon going along with a Whip of Erebos but he apparently ran out of removal and I was able to get a Omenspeaker with Gift of Orzhova, Aqueous Form and Ethereal Armor and hold of his Demon long enough get another creature enchanted up and swing for the game.

-- Game 2 (Win) was by far the best game of Magic I have played since I started playing again a year ago.

So we started out with a mulligan to 6, ran into 2 turns of removal, which was fine as I casted a Phalanx Leader and Favored Hoplite to bait it out so I could resolve a Daxos.... BUT in this time my opponent had resolved a Demon, Obzedat and then a Blood Baron; I was at 2 life, had an Omenspeaker with Aqueous Form, Soldier of the Pantheon and a Daxos. Here is where a top decked Hidden Strings BLEW MY F****** MIND!
I was at 2 life, 2 LIFE! Staring down a 7/7 Desecration Demon, Blood Baron and an Obzedat waiting to blink in for the win. This Hidden Stings allowed me to resolve a Gift of Orzhova, Ethreal Armor and Demon fodder for the next turn. I was able to swing with Omenspeaker and Daxos (exiled a land) and untap both for defense and get up to 7 life. Next turn I pumped out another Ethereal Armor, this time on Omenspeaker and she started to wreak havoc on my opponent, pulling me out of a hole. I screwed up majorly and missed 3 Daxos triggers which would have netted me a Read the Bones, Blood Baron and Obzedat, that won't ever happen again....
That Hidden Strings and Gift of Orzhova won me the game and I will never ever leave home with out them again, I love those to cards (in this deck).

Overall is was a good night for my first build of the deck, Daxos proved nice but not quite the mid game card I was looking for, Hidden Strings is going to 4, Gift of Orzhova will be going to 3.
I will be dropping Phalanx Leader all together, I will be running (***wait for it***) Fabled Hero at a 3. I may not like him but I got to have a strong win condition and through not only you and my friends suggestions, playing a full night with out him has more than convinced me of his power.
Aqueous Form will be going to 2, Ordeal to 3 and Ethereal Armor to drop to 3.

I can not wait to build my U/W Hero of Iroas deck, I am thinking more Bestow than actual enchantments, but maybe I will finally start using Righteous Authority.

Ha ha Nice run down man. Glad to see you see that Gift and Hidden are good cards and have great synergy with the heroics and what not.
I knew that over time you would see that Fabled hero is beast. You pair him up with Hidden strings and after everything resolves you can actually get Three Casts of Hidden Strings from him. . . His Double Strike gives you 2 Ciphers =).
I have to agree, that while I like Daxos, He is just seems to not be as powerful as it looks on the cards text, though he has come in handy on a few occasions I will prob take him out too.

Seems your OmenSpeaker did some work! Did the Scry from her help a lot? I threw in Fate Foretolds the last FNM and actually had some fun with it, but still I think a couple other cards would benefit me more, Though the one extra card draw was nice. Though may pump Ordeals to 4 in this case as I get 2 cards per one, and if I can get one guy to 3 counters I can double up on the Ordeals and draw 4 cards one turn possibly.

I'm looking forward to soooo many cards form BoTG. But Don't Rule out <a href="/card/sunbond/BNG/"> If you can see what I mean here . . . . You tell me. . .